Depends on you level of spiritual development and the more developed a person's spirituality the less the person thinks of God as a noun and the more she things of God as a verb.
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“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”
― Maya Angelou
What helps you to find your courage?
The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!
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Randy Rapp. |
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Sue Rekenthaler. |
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Julie Contreras. |
Friday, October 12, 2018 #BloodDrive 2:30 to 8:30pm #Unitarian #Universalist Congregation of the #HudsonValley 2021 Albany Post Road (Route 9A) #CrotonOnHudson #WestchesterNY (@foundinyonkers Pls RT?)pic.twitter.com/0LQTu3VBFH
UU Mental Health – Unitarian Universalist Perspectives on Mental Health http://uumentalhealth.org/ #MentalHealthAwarenessDay
The Reluctant Radical Screening (San Diego 350), Oct 12 2018 @ First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego, https://s.time.ly/ewU53v9i
Mark your calendar! The second #reimagining15501 public workshop on Mon., Oct. 22 at Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at 4907 Garrett Rd, Durham. Drop in anytime for the open house between 6 – 8 pm.
An immigrant facing deportation has now spent one year in sanctuary at a Unitarian Universalist church in Connecticut. http://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/Meriden/Meriden-News/Sujitno-Sajuti-one-year-in-Meriden-sanctuary.html …
https://www.thepetitionsite.com/de/takeaction/813/097/362/ …
Change the name of the Negro Bar state park in Folsom, California
@keithboykin @BLM5280 @BLM_Boston @ukblm @BLMLA @BlackLivesUU @Bakary510 @iammoshow
New petition!!! WTF??? Negro bar???
Read about Unitarian Universalist support for the valve turners in this story from our Summer issue: https://www.uuworld.org/articles/living-emergency …
https://www.thepetitionsite.com/de/takeaction/388/039/330/ … Trump Wants to Bring Back Racist 'Stop and Frisk' Policing! @keithboykin @BLM5280 @BLM_Boston @ukblm @BLMLA @BlackLivesUU @Bakary510 @iammoshow New petition!!!
#CafePottery had a lot of fun with these kids making cups today. #compasshomeschool in #Oakton @ UUCF-Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax https://www.instagram.com/p/BoxKpB8FS3Y/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=eyisj9y91p9o …
I'm a small-l libertarian Mormon who was raised as a Unitarian Universalist, so I think there should be a "neither of these answers represent what I actually think and it pisses me off that you insist on categorizing me in this manner" option.
This is my organization for working on criminal justice reform. Join us! UUFA (Unitarian Universalist Faith Action) 2018 Issues Conference "commercial" https://youtu.be/2fi3fSU8C5k via @YouTube
I did a little research on the history of National Coming Out Day. It began in 1988 with the premise that coming out as a queer or trans person was the most basic form of activism one could do, because of the rationale that it is harder for people to hate queer or trans people if they know one.
Continue reading Dare to Come Out to Ourselves on National Coming Out Day! on UUA.org.
Social Justice learning for all ages followed by a meal. This Saturday at 4pmpic.twitter.com/MG1MnuYap4
News Release: News Release: 10/10/2018:Unitarian Universalist Church in the Pines November Theme http://tinyurl.com/yd2teus7
Thursday, October 11th is National Coming Out Day!
Thirty years ago queer people began celebrating National Coming Out Day on the one-year anniversary of the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Their goal was simply to celebrate our inherit worth and dignity before the nation and the world by living their truth as the most potent form of activism.
“Power concedes nothing without a demand,” abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass declared 161 years ago.
Last week saw that truth on broad display as Amazon, facing growing political and organizing pressure, announced it was setting a minimum wage of $15/hour for its US workforce and also raising wages in England.
The company’s declaration followed months of mounting bad publicity for Amazon. US workers have been speaking out in greater numbers about the punishing pace of work, high injury rates, and a plantation mentality on the warehouse floor. A British journalist went undercover at Amazon and wrote a book describing workers forced to pee in bottles and extraordinarily high rates of depression. (Ironically, Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain is selling remarkably well on the Amazon site.
Amazon workers in Germany, Poland, and Spain struck on Amazon’s Prime Day in June, protesting appalling working conditions.
Back in the US, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) went after the company for paying such poor wages that much of its workforce is dependent on public benefits like food stamps, housing subsidies, and Medicaid.
And Amazon’s wage concession followed continued high-visibility mobilizations by Fight for $15 against McDonald’s and other corporate targets.
Naturally, Amazon executives sought to pivot talk away from corporate concession and towards business enlightenment. “We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO.
The political establishment lavished kudos on the company, valued at $1 trillion, and CEO Bezos, whose net wealth tops $150 billion, for its generosity to workers. “An outstanding move,” gushed The Seattle Times editorial board in Amazon’s hometown. “Prime Amazon: In praise of the internet giant's $15 hourly wage,” trumpeted the New York Daily News headline.
Fellow billionaire Nick Hanauer teamed up with union leader David Rolf to heap praise on the company. “Amazon has smartly chosen to lead the way into the real economy, where we solve the problems, build the things, and pay the wages that truly make America great,” Hanauer and Rolf wrote just hours after the company made the announcement.
Even Sen. Sanders, Amazon’s erstwhile nemesis, felt compelled to pile on, congratulating Bezos personally in a tweet.
So much for the back-slapping and public optics. The view from the warehouse floor is a little more complicated. For while the raise certainly is a product of sustained pressure on the company, it’s not the game-changing largesse that Amazon’s public relations department would have us believe. In low-wage states like Kentucky and South Carolina, to be sure, the raises may amount to $2 or $3 an hour or more. But many Amazon warehouse workers, particularly on the coasts, already were paid close to $15/hour.
And while rolling out the new wage rate with great fanfare, Amazon more quietly informed workers the company would be eliminating stock options and performance bonuses. For full-time workers in the company’s warehouses, those compensation add-ons had pushed them above $15/hour. But no more. Many full-time workers will see minimal raises—or even net declines.
Indeed, setting a $15 minimum wage for 350,000 Amazon workers likely will cost the company less than one tenth of one percent of its net worth: A pittance.
Oct. 2 was the big announcement day. When a New Jersey fulfillment center manager excitedly announced the raise to a gathering of night-shift Amazon workers, the room remained silent, reported one of the workers. It was only when human resources staff started clapping aggressively that others gamely joined in, he said.
His colleagues will accept the raise since they have bills to pay, but because of the punishing pace, “Workers hate the company. People feel they’re treated like they are slaves,” he explained.
Workers at an Amazon warehouse outside Seattle, Washington, attributed the raise to Sen. Sanders’ advocacy and “people speaking up in an organized way,” according to a part-time distribution center worker. But the issues for Amazon’s workers go far beyond low wages, he said. The constant push for impossible levels of productivity, a lack of respect from supervisors, rampant workplace injuries, and continual burnout and workforce churn are what angers workers the most.
Those issues share a common root: A business model that implacably demands that workers submit to inhumane levels of exploitation. Unlike in Europe, where many Amazon workers have organized into unions, struck, and won modest gains, US workers aren’t yet unified in sufficient numbers to make big demands on the corporate giant.
Will the splashy wage announcement head off incipient worker organizing? Quite to the contrary, asserted the Seattle worker. It will build confidence in organizing because it shows workers that the company will respond to pressure, he said.
It will take a lot more escalation to win meaningful change. The Amazon workers I’ve talked to over the last year agree that the company won’t fix the appalling conditions until it is forced to do so. That will happen when workers build union organization and, united with consumers and allies, prove they can disrupt Amazon’s operations and hit the company’s bottom line.
That may sound like a pipe-dream. But consider that 100 years ago the titans of the emerging production economy—think basic steel, auto, and electrical industries—seemed omnipotent and untouchable. It took years of struggle, including many tough battles and devastating losses, before the wave of 1930s plant occupations and strikes led by socialists and radicals of various stripes forged new industrial unions. In doing so, they boosted not just working conditions in the production sector, but propelled a broader social movement that organized and won public works jobs, Social Security, labor rights, minimum wages, and other gains of the New Deal era.
Significantly, too, the same factors that shaped the meteoric growth of basic industry 100 years ago—the tremendous economies of scale achievable in mass production, the deployment of cutting-edge technologies, and the application of precise scientific management of production and distribution, including a just-in-time employment model—are core elements of Amazon’s business model today.
The challenge, then as now, is for workers to recognize that as with the industrial monopolies of the last century, Amazon’s extraordinary sweep of power also is its Achilles heel—provided that workers organize. Alone, the Amazon warehouse worker is among the weakest of laborers in America; together in large numbers, they have the power not just to transform what it means to be a warehouse worker, but to help drive a new social movement in our country.
It’s worth recalling that in November 2012, much of the political punditocracy was aghast when a relatively small coterie of New York City fast-food workers first hoisted picket signs demanding $15 and a union. Such an unrealistic demand! Now, six years later, more than nineteen million low-wage US workers have won raises through legislation and workplace organizing as a result, directly or indirectly, of the Fight for $15 movement.
And yet, even with these gains, workers aren’t making it. Nearly eighty percent of full-time American workers say they live paycheck-to-paycheck, seventy-one percent are in debt, and most workers are unable to build up savings to get through a medical, employment, or housing crisis. America is, today, a nation of spectacular wealth enjoyed by the gilded one percent while tens of millions daily teeter on the brink of financial ruin and destitution.
Many of those desperate workers, indeed, already are paid $15 an hour. It’s just not nearly enough to live on.
Over the last six years, we’ve seen corporations like Target, Walmart, and Costco make economic concessions in an effort to forestall demands for something more valuable and radical—real worker power. Now, Amazon has fallen in line with its corporate siblings.
The pundits’ praise for Bezos is utterly misplaced. Praise should go to the workers, who endure brutal conditions, who have just achieved a modest yet remarkable concession from Amazon, and who, step by step, are struggling and learning to build worker power inside the behemoth. We must support them, because their success in this years-long battle will lift us all.
So, let’s be clear: $15 is not nearly enough. It’s time to raise a new banner, a much bolder one that demands an end to brutal working conditions and obscene profiteering, and a societal commitment to rights, security, and power for all workers.
About the Author
Jonathan Rosenblum is a writer and union and community organizer based in Seattle, WA. He is the author of Beyond $15: Immigrant Workers, Faith Activists, and the Revival of the Labor Movement (Beacon Press, 2017), and a member of the National Writers Union/UAW 1981. Find him online at https://jonathanrosenblum.org/ or Twitter: @jonathan4212.
[PLACE EDITOR'S NOTE HERE]
Charge to the—MinisterRev. Dawn Fortune
Look around this sanctuary.
Feel the love. It is palpable. It is real—and it is yours. Embrace the grace of being loved for all that is you. For all that is your life.
I charge you, Dawn Fortune, never to forget that are worthy of love. Break open your heart and accept what this deep, abiding love can mean.
Continue reading Embrace the Grace of Being Loved: A Charge to the Minister on UUA.org.
Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, VA celebrates National Coming Out Day -- all are invited! https://www.facebook.com/POFEVNOVA/posts/1847032482047341 …
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 10 ** COUNTY ** FREE: Sacred Wheel Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair at 7pm to 8:30pm http://www.facebook.com/events/1895038047458996 …
The odds of getting to your destination are not determined by the speed of your transport—if you don’t know where you want to go or have a plan for getting there, a sports car will do you no good. If you do have a clear destination and a plan, the rate at which you travel is not so important.
What destination do you have a plan for, even if getting there will take time?
The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!
Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
One glorious spring day, I was on a field trip with a group of middle school youth, venturing a short way down the Florida National Scenic Trail.
One glorious spring day, I was on a field trip with a group of middle school youth, venturing a short way down the Florida National Scenic Trail.
Continue reading Blessed Are the Magic-Makers on UUA.org.
Happy to have heard a recording of a great premiere of "I Sought the Wood" at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad Cities. Thank you for the opportunity and great Willa Cather poem, Dad.
What do you mean by “someone”? Not the members of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, mowed down a few years ago for being suspected of being liberal?
@bain_potter ummm, just FYI - I’m a bleeding heart liberal Unitarian Universalist ... you probably don’t want to follow me. Cool if you do, just thought I’d let ya know! Peace out.
Playing “El-e-mentos” during homeschooling Games/Movement class with Rick Tan today. http://www.wlrclasses.com @ Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis https://www.instagram.com/p/Bou9f__gowK/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=86389jkkyf8i …
It’s a tough time to be a woman right now. Our political leaders have just laughed in our faces, mocked our pain, and given the middle finger to equality. Meanwhile, we’re forced to watch another entitled, rich, white man rise to the top. Blegh.
We’re vulnerable, angry, and fed the fuck up. Our rage is at peak level, but so is the sadness. We’re basically walking around ready to either burst into flames or sobs at any moment.
So circle up, friends. Because women supporting women is about the most badass thing we can do right now. And if you need proof, look no further than Twitter.
First off, we’re never too young for #girlpower.
Once was out for lunch with my 2yo. This jerk was complaining about his female boss. Little one slammed her hand down on the table, pointed at him and yelled ‘That’s not very nice’. He shut up. I have been learning from her ever since. #girlssupportinggirls #fuckpoliteness
— Dana (@dbjarnagage) October 6, 2018
And we’re there for each other during those tricky times.
If a girls asks me for a tampon and I don't have one for her, best believe we bouta search the entire vicinity together to find her a tampon
— Kailee
(@QuarteroRae) March 5, 2017
And when we need a little help from our friends (or a stranger).
Walked into a bathroom at the club, saw a security guard harassing this chick so I’m like “hey girl, I’ve been looking for you everywhere the bands about to start” took her hand and we left. Never seen her before in my life #girlssupportinggirls
— dontbeadick (@spotbakesacake) October 6, 2018
We’ve got each other’s back.
the girl in front of me in the lecture was watching grey’s anatomy, looked back and saw me staring so she put on the subtitles.
girls support girls.
— bia ❦ (@veryfawny) October 3, 2017
We are always looking out for each other.
A man plainly followed me onto my bus. Woman came to sit by me & asked if I knew he was following me. She offered to get off at my stop w me
— Natalie Jester (@NatalieJester) August 12, 2017
We know when one of us needs a pick me up…
When a group of teenage girls stop you at the convenience store to tell you that your highlight is popping and that you're gorgeous there are still good people out there
#girlssupportinggirls
— Bren
(@brennamarie118) January 9, 2018
Or a little beauty advice.
i asked this girl where she got her nails done&she googled the exact address & showed me a pic of the building THATS girls supporting girls
— frog’s breath (@rosyghoul) August 6, 2017
I asked a girl where did she cut her hair and she took an appointment for me and a discount at that hairdresser…girls support all the way!
— Hana Osman | هناء عثمان (@HanaOsman) August 8, 2017
And when the times comes to unleash our fierce, badass rage on the world, we know what to do.
ladies: what’s your makeup routine? i’m looking for a new foundation, preferably liquid but still matte and now that the men have stopped reading we riot at midnight
— aída chávez (@aidachavez) September 28, 2018
And we’re there with reinforcements.
I use a nice gloss called YOU SHOULD SMILE MORE.
— Lisa Braun Dubbels (@lisadubbels) October 2, 2018
I use a shade called RAGE and a blusher called BURN IT DOWN.
— Lisa Braun Dubbels (@lisadubbels) September 28, 2018
We’re ON IT.
I have the same trouble but with eyeliner. Apparently rosewater makes an excellent make up fixer but it's about time, see you on the battlefield, sisters.
— Deadly Knitshade (@deadlyknitshade) October 2, 2018
Ooh I’ll try that! It might help with my concealer too. My biggest problem are my under-eye bags though. I am only just starting to learn how to minimize them it’s cold in some places maybe you could bring some knitted things to keep our sisters warm
— SCARE-en James(@kejames) October 2, 2018
Even though I’m 71, I
— Lynda Franka (@lyndaarizona) September 30, 2018Cover Girl. I need some tips on using mascara, please ..... meet us in the parking lot behind Safeway and be ready to throw some cocktails ha ha ha (insert maniacal laughter here).
I’m in. My new eyebrow pencil is Definition of Rage and my ultimate fave lipstick is Cat 5 Hurricane by Survivor Scorned.
— Kristine Kenyon (@kristine_kenyon) September 30, 2018
Follow the bat signal, folks. Favorite foundation and lip gloss optional.
Makeup tips are the new bat signal. Done.
— TMarie (@tessas_marie) September 30, 2018
The post These Tweets Show The Fiery Force That Is Women Supporting Women appeared first on Scary Mommy.
Thursday, November 1 at Noon, Turf Tavern – Edison Cylinder Record Hop: Thomas Edison called the phonograph his “favorite invention “and he and others have called the phonograph his “most original invention “. Retired GE physicist Bob Lillquist and his wife, retired NYS DOH manager Pat Lillquist will explore the history of the Cylinder Phonograph while playing a selection of cylinders on an Edison 1909 Fireside Phonograph. Records and machines are over 100 years old. Will your MP3’s, CD’s and stuff stored in the cloud be playable even 30 years from now?
Bob built his first tinfoil Cylinder phonograph as a kid based on instructions in the 1960 book “Edison Experiments You Can Do”. The recordings were terrible. He bought his first original Edison phonograph, an LU-37 diamond disk, for $70 in the 1970’s at a garage sale on Garner Ave. It came with 24 records. At the GE R&D Center, Bob specialized in industrial infrared radiometry and infrared sensor design and applications
Lunch Choices are Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry or Baked Scrod. Vegetarian upon request at time of reservation. RSVP to
Patti Foley-Hess, daytimewomensalliance@gmail.com, or 518-399-2582. Make your reservation BEFORE Sunday October 28, 2018.
Greetings, dear UUSS community~ Each of us is influenced by a variety of cultures, depending on our identities, our families, where we have lived, our education, workplaces, hobbies, and our religious communities. For those of us who have identities that include dominant cultures, that is, a culture that has ways of being that are accepted, in the majority of power, shared by many others around us, we can forget that our cultural norms are choices, rather than just ‘the way things are.’
When we look carefully at our cultural practices, we have an opportunity to continue with them, or to change them. The Chalice Challenge event on October 20th will be an opportunity to consider culture and identity; our own and the cultures we share at UUSS.
We hope that you can attend. Why? Because your voice and presence make a difference, and the conversation will change with each person who attends. Beloved community is created when folks show up, are willing to listen and risk speaking their truth and to be transformed by what is shared. We have been able to be part of such conversations just this past week, and we are so grateful.
There is much going on in the world that is the opposite of what our faith teaches us. We offer a deep thanks to each of you who is doing one (or many) small or large thing to make the world a better place. If you are looking for ideas-get involved, get someone elected, phone bank, knock on doors and get to know your neighbors and talk about what matters, send postcards to those already in office. We offer support to those who are overwhelmed and could use an ear of listening or a shoulder of care. We are all connected, and we depend upon one another more than we know. Who you are and what you do, matters. In faith~ Rev. Lynn and Rev. Wendy
Nonviolent Communication with Speaker, Philomena Moriarty. An active teacher and learner of Nonviolent Communication for over 10 years, Philomena is a seasoned and licensed psychotherapist who finds that the model of compassionate communications dovetails naturally and effectively with the work she does with clients.
Nonviolent Communication is based on a set of principles that support living a life of compassion, collaboration, courage, and authenticity, as opposed to the language of judgment, blame, shame, and evaluative thinking that provides much of the backdrop for interactions with others, and even with our self. Using a language of compassionate communication gives us understanding and practice with words that contribute to connection, instead of disconnection. This presentation will provide a taste of this delicious practice that has transformed lives.
The Evening Branch of the Women’s Alliance (EBWA) offers beverages and conversation at 5:45pm followed by a catered vegetarian supper at 6:15pm, and the program at 7:45pm. To make a reservation for the supper, email Gabrielle Reals at ellegr3@gmail.com by Monday, Oct. 22 or call her at 518-382-5685 by 8pm Tuesday, Oct. 23. Gluten-free meals are available if requested with your reservation. You may also bring your own food, or come for the program only (in which case you should plan to arrive by 7:30pm). Cost of the evening is $15 or $3 without the meal. (If you need to hire a babysitter, inform us when you make your reservation and the cost will be only $7.50). Our meals are catered so please honor your reservation.
Looking ahead: On November 15 we will hear from Aneesa Waheed, Moroccan restaurateur and spa entrepreneur, in a talk titled “Re-Horizon.”
Given the tense political climate we find ourselves in, and knowing that whether or not our kids show it, there is a great deal of fear and anxiety among them regarding this maelstrom we find ourselves in. Check out this UUA site for lots of helpful tips in talking about these issues HERE.
Also, do explore the UUA website when you have an opportunity–there is a ton of information available, from tips to talking to kids about trauma, to youth service trips, and everything in between; it’s really a wonderful resource: uua.org.
This coming Sunday, 10/14, everyone will begin in the Great Hall and stay through Story for All Ages. Following Story for All Ages, K/1 Children will follow their teachers to their Wonderful Welcome classroom in the church hallway. Grades 2-12 will meet in the church entryway and be led across the street to their Waters House classrooms. Classes will run through 11:50.
If you haven’t already registered your child for RE, please be sure to do so. To register your K-12th child for fall RE CLICK HERE.
If you have any questions, call (607) 435-2803 or email dlre@uuschenectady.org.
Remembering Our Ancestors – Let’s gather for different views and different brews, as we discuss spirituality and other things that matter. This month we’ll remember our ancestors, ancestors of place, of family, of identity. How have we been shaped by those who have lived and died before? Whose stories do we know and share? Whose stories are covered, lost, or invisible? Center Street Public House, 308 Union St, Schenectady, 7:00-9:00. – Rev. Lynn Gardner, revlynn@uuschenectady.org
*This spelling of theologies allows for a wide variety of perspective, beliefs, and expressions of the divine.
Rather talk over a cup of coffee? Join us for Brewed Awakenings at Apostrophe Cafe on October 23rd, 10:00-11:30. – Rev. Lynn Gardner, revlynn@uuschenectady.org
The Family Promise families will be staying at Waters House from Oct. 28 – Nov. 4. Please sign up for a slot if you can! If you need the required training, contact Mary O’Keeffe at mathcircle@gmail.com or Lee Danielson at danielson459@gmail.com and we will be happy to set up a training time that is convenient for you.
By Carol Fulp
By 2042, the United States will no longer be majority white, and companies that proactively embrace racial, gender, and class diversity in all areas of operations will be best poised to thrive. That’s what Carol Fulp, president and CEO of The Partnership—a Boston-based multicultural leadership development firm—writes in Success Through Diversity: Why the Most Inclusive Companies Will Win. Her book draws on both her personal and career experiences as well as case studies from a range of companies to examine why investing in a diverse workforce will help make today’s businesses more profitable. Take, for example, Eastern Bank in New England. In the follow passage, Fulp outlines the bank’s path to boardroom diversity—and what other businesses can learn from it.
***
When you think of dynamic, innovative, high-performance organizations, your local community bank doesn’t usually come to mind. But if you live in New England, it might. Founded in 1818, Eastern Bank is the country’s oldest and largest mutual bank, serving communities throughout Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and beyond. It’s also one of the country’s most progressive banking institutions. Eastern provides fairly priced banking, investment, and insurance products and services for consumers, businesses, and underserved communities. Since 1999, on average Eastern has donated at least 10 percent of its net income—seven times the national average—every year to charity and local organizations working on causes such as advancing women in the workplace, supporting immigrants, and advocating for social justice.
Doing good has also been part of a winning growth strategy for the bank. Eastern as we know it today took shape through an acquisition strategy that has spanned decades. Beginning in the 1980s, Eastern began acquiring small savings institutions in its local area (including a bank founded by my husband, C. Bernard Fulp, who also was the first African American executive vice president in the new England banking industry). In the 2000s, Eastern continued to expand, and in 2017, it had over 120 locations and crossed $10 billion in assets. Eastern achieved record financial results in 2017, which included an increase of nearly 40 percent in net income.
Despite its growth, Eastern is small compared to the banking industry’s primary players. In 2016 the top four US banks—JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup—managed a combined $8.1 trillion in assets. Still, $10 billion was enough to make Eastern the 120th largest bank in the country—out of 6,000. And in one respect, Eastern is way ahead of these four massive banking behemoths (and many smaller financial institutions too). I’m talking about diversity. As of 2018, 50 percent of its officers and 33 percent of its management committee—a group comprising the company’s twelve most senior executives—were women, people of color, and/or those considered diverse, such as members of the LGBTQ community. Eastern’s main subsidiary, Eastern Insurance Group, is the largest insurance agency led by a woman in the US. About one-fifth of Eastern’s employees are people of difference. If you brought all of the company’s 1,900 employees together in one place, you would hear a number of sounds that might be unfamiliar. That’s because they speak more than fifty languages and dialects.
In contrast to most of its industry counterparts, Eastern has an extremely diverse board, with 50 percent composed of women, people of color, and/or others considered diverse. In the banking industry, women occupy only 9 percent of all board seats—despite holding the majority of professional jobs in the country and making the vast majority of all consumer decisions. The boards at the regional Federal Reserve Banks were overwhelmingly populated by white men as well.
Unlike many publicly traded companies, Eastern spawned three separate governing bodies over the past two centuries. Back in 1818, when a group of wealthy philanthropists founded the bank, they formed a group of corporators to oversee the running of the organization. In fact, the bank’s first customer, Rebecca Sutton, was a woman, a true sign of diversity and inclusion at a time when women were not permitted to have bank accounts. Through the years and given the bank’s many acquisitions, the number of Eastern’s corporators grew greatly. As a result, a group of trustees was chosen from among the corporators to serve as an executive committee. It eventually became apparent that Eastern also needed a group of directors to handle governance matters—individuals who could devote more time and provide specific expertise. A board of directors was formed, typically composed of twelve to fifteen members.
Fast-forward and since 2003, Eastern has placed great importance on diversity and inclusion among its directors, trustees, and corporators. It has gone from having an overall board that was previously composed of 92 percent white males to having, as of 2018, 50 percent of the 140 members represented by people of color, women, or individuals from the LGBTQ community. In addition, all members of the boards reflect a vast array of professional backgrounds, skills, and expertise.
Does a connection exist between Eastern’s unique board diversity and its rapid growth? As a member of the Board of Trustees, I believe the answer is an unambiguous “yes.” Board diversity has allowed Eastern to “punch far above its weight” compared to much larger local competitors such as Citizens, TD Bank, Santander, and Bank of America. Specifically, it has helped Eastern improve its strategic decision-making, recruiting, innovation, and connection with the community.
Eastern’s board diversity didn’t just materialize on its own. It evolved thanks to sustained commitment from senior leadership, in particular the bank’s current chair and CEO, Robert “Bob” Rivers. Upon Rivers’s arrival in 2006 as vice chair and chief banking officer, he saw the opportunity to diversify the bank’s governing boards.
Given the bank’s roots in Salem, Massachusetts, and long history serving Boston’s North Shore, its board reflected those primarily white communities. In addition, as is typical in corporate board recruitment across industries, board members tended to recommend individuals from their own networks for board posts. Eastern’s board makeup also reflected its history of acquisitions of other banks in which some of the acquired banks’ board members moved onto one of Eastern’s governing bodies. Most often, the acquired bank board members were white men.
When Rivers joined Eastern, the bank’s board of directors did feature several individuals from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds but not the trustees and corporators, the two other governing boards. The disparity puzzled Rivers. As he recalls, “I tried to reconcile why the make-up of the directors was so different from the trustees’ and corporators’—and not just in terms of diversity but different in every way imaginable, especially in engagement and connectivity to our customers. The resulting diversity of thought elevated board conversations, and innovative ideas and creativity flowed.”
Building on the existing commitment of immediate past Eastern CEOs Richard Holbrook and Stanley Lukowski to boost diversity among the bank’s customers, employees, leadership team, and board of directors, Rivers made it a priority to add people of many races, genders, sexual orientations, and backgrounds to Eastern’s boards of trustees and corporators, and also to have the bank advocate more aggressively on issues related to inclusion. “We had been pursuing ‘diversity light’ up until then,” he notes. “We had it in our employee policies and we had included people with nontraditional backgrounds on our board of directors. But we had never really injected it into the entire organization and governing bodies. We were conscious of the changing demographics, but it hadn’t fully crystallized for us. I was determined to change that.”
Born in the Greater Boston area, Rivers is named after former attorney general and US senator Robert F. Kennedy, and he shares Kennedy’s commitment to racial equality and equal opportunity. Yet Rivers also saw the trustees and corporators, the two larger boards, as untapped business assets that could help Eastern in its future growth plans. “For me, it was all about how we could have the most robust collective thinking to address increasingly complex challenges in a more rapidly changing world. The way to do that was to have as many people with different backgrounds and experiences as possible. And that didn’t simply mean putting more people of color or members of the LGBTQ community on the board. It meant diversity across a number of dimensions.” Rivers was excited about the prospect of an entire board that could energize the bank and drive innovation. He also saw board diversity as a way to help spread and embrace difference across the entire organization: “I knew that if we have diversity on the board, it would not only help us increase our cultural competence and understanding, but it would also send a very important signal that we’re serious about it.”
As directors, trustees, and corporators retired, Rivers considered diversity as a primary factor when considering their replacements. To embrace diversity and the best talent of all kinds, he first looked at building diversity on the nominating committees for new trustees and corporators. Since the bank at the time had few people of color on these governing bodies, Rivers began by recruiting more women to join these committees, believing that women would be eager to have more diverse governing bodies, and for all the right reasons.
From the outset, Rivers and other leaders at Eastern were adamant that board diversity could never come at the expense of overall excellence and fitness for the post. Says Rivers, “Our mantra in the nominating committee was first and foremost to find the best, brightest, most strategic people we can get to join our board. It was to aim high, considering those that we weren’t sure we could even attract. Our second criterion was to look at anybody as a potential candidate but particularly identifying candidates who are women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community.”
Eastern’s lead director at the time and a longtime board member, African American businessman Wendell Knox, agrees: “We were very strategic in trying to add people who not only were the right gender or the right color but also who brought expertise, knowledge, and connectivity to the community in concrete ways that were consistent with what we were doing. We actually demonstrated that you can achieve diversity and add a ton of value, rather than compromise on your standards.”
With the goal of more diverse nominating committees for trustees and corporators in place, the bank secured the participation of many more people with underrepresented backgrounds, while also continuing to appoint white males to its governing bodies. By any standard, the quality of these recruits has been impressive. Appointments during Rivers’s tenure have included Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan, an African American woman who is CEO of the Dimock Center, the leading health and human services provider for Boston’s urban neighborhoods; former US senator William “Mo” Cowan, vice president of legal policy and litigation at General Electric who is also African American; Vanessa Calderon-Rosado, a Hispanic woman who serves as CEO of Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion, a critical Boston-based community-building organization; and Gunner Scott, a Massachusetts-based activist and the first openly transgender individual ever elected to a bank board in the US (the board has had two transgender members as of this writing, including one who transitioned while serving as a sitting corporator). “If you look at the new board members we brought on over the last several years,” remarks Knox, who served as lead director from 2009 to 2017, “there is a very concrete story that can be told about why each one of them represents a value added to the board.” As testament to how the bank has advanced its diversity practices on its board, in 2018 it announced the election of Deborah Jackson as lead director, succeeding Knox and becoming the first woman and second person of color to serve in that position in Eastern two-hundred-year history. Jackson, who is African American, joined Eastern’s board in 2002 and is the president of Cambridge College and former CEO of the American Red Cross of Massachusetts.
As a result of these various appointments, the atmosphere in the boardroom has become transformed. As Jackson notes, “When you walk into a governance meeting, you immediately notice a change visually. You can see the diversity in the room. There is now a diversified board with more women, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos.”
Eastern’s advocacy around the issue of inclusion was also quite pronounced and carried through into the community. In 2013, Eastern was the first bank to sign the amicus brief challenging the Defense of Marriage Act. Hundreds of companies nationwide followed suit. The bank also affirmed its stance with a strong presence in the local LGBTQ pride parades, as well as with its naming of transgender board members.
Such moves and board diversification rankled some old-guard employees and board members. An employee in the finance department, a twenty-year company veteran, left because the bank’s advocacy on behalf of the LGBTQ community clashed with her religious beliefs. At one annual meeting where Rivers spoke about LGBTQ advocacy, an older white man in attendance sat with his arms crossed and shook his head vigorously for all to see. When Eastern named its first transgender board member, another board member called Rivers to complain bitterly and ultimately resigned from the board. In the face of such resistance, Rivers stuck to his commitment to not only appoint people of all backgrounds but also to affirm their inclusion and integration in the organization. “We, in the spirit of inclusion, follow a mandate,” he says. “Your religious beliefs are your own, but the minute your actions and words disadvantage or hurt anyone, our commitment to equal opportunity for all is our guide. They should not impact how people are treated in their jobs, how their work is evaluated, and how we hire. There are some people for whom this is just a step too far, and [if so] this probably isn’t the organization for them.”
The vast majority of company stakeholders applauded the appearance of new faces around the boardroom as well the bank’s explicit commitment to equality for all. Existing board members approached Rivers to indicate their appreciation, recognizing the benefits of a more diverse and active board as supporting the organization’s mission while also serving the bank’s business interests. Employees loved it too. For ten years running, the bank has appeared in the Boston Globe’s ranking of the area’s top employers. “What’s most important to us,” Rivers notes, “is the level of employee participation in the survey, in addition to the scores. Over 90 percent of our 1,900 employees participate. That’s off the charts and a solid indicator of our employee engagement.”
Among other sources of employee pride is the company’s “Join us for Good” campaign, launched in March 2017 to celebrate those who are making a difference and rally others to ignite a movement. In a series of inspiring online and television commercials, as well as on billboards flanking the Commonwealth’s major thoroughfares, Eastern presented powerful social justice images of “doing good” in the community, featuring pro-immigration themes or individuals draped in rainbow flags or at same-sex marriage ceremonies. Paul Alexander, the bank’s chief marketing and communications officer, who is African American and also vice chair of the Partnership board, summarizes Eastern’s employee reactions to the campaign: “Many said, ‘that’s my company. that’s why I’m proud to work at Eastern.’”
About the Author
Carol Fulp is president and CEO of the Partnership, New England’s premier organization dedicated to enhancing competitiveness by attracting, developing, and retaining multicultural professionals. Prior to joining The Partnership, Inc., she held executive roles at John Hancock Financial, WCVB (the ABC-TV Boston affiliate), and the Gillette Company. In 2010, President Obama appointed Fulp as a US representative to the sixty-fifth session of the UN’s General Assembly. She lives with her husband, C. Bernard (“Bernie”) Fulp, in Boston. Follow her on Twitter at @Carol_Fulp and visit her website.
Very diverse group of white folks there... Guessing none are of the satanic faith? Or perhaps agnostic? Atheists? Unitarian Universalist?
You know , you can't be a black Republican either! God forbid they think for themselves! I was told I can't be a Unitarian Universalist Woman and be Republican?
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I’m so glad! I grew up Unitarian Universalist, the least organized of the organized religions. ; )
A new daycare and preschool for ages 6 weeks to 5 years opened today in space in the Keene Unitarian Universalist Church. https://buff.ly/2NuCCax pic.twitter.com/Rx0rIZsZbs